Regardless of how you feel about Bendis....

[People Of The Earth]

Of course my stated opinion is my opinion - why would I be giving someone else's opinion?

I stand by my initial comment, though. The quality of the X-Men books is very poor at the moment and has been for many years.

Most people still reading are just "character fans" who would read a doodle on the back of a cigarette packet if it had Pixie in it. The fans of old-fashioned action-packed, soap-opera X-Men are disappointed by the decompressed, static stories and B-list art; the people who jumped on board with Morrison are disappointed at the lack of Morrison; people who jumped on board with the 1990s cartoon are disappointed by the lack of team spirit and sidelining of popular characters; even Bendis-fans are disappointed that it's badly-written compared to his Daredevil run.

In my opinion (as, of course, that's what this is), the franchise is at best treading water.

I couldn't be more in tune with this statement...
Except for the art, Bendis had first class artists at his disposal.

[Beezzi]

Of course my stated opinion is my opinion - why would I be giving someone else's opinion?

I stand by my initial comment, though. The quality of the X-Men books is very poor at the moment and has been for many years.

Most people still reading are just "character fans" who would read a doodle on the back of a cigarette packet if it had Pixie in it. The fans of old-fashioned action-packed, soap-opera X-Men are disappointed by the decompressed, static stories and B-list art; the people who jumped on board with Morrison are disappointed at the lack of Morrison; people who jumped on board with the 1990s cartoon are disappointed by the lack of team spirit and sidelining of popular characters; even Bendis-fans are disappointed that it's badly-written compared to his Daredevil run.

In my opinion (as, of course, that's what this is), the franchise is at best treading water.

That post basically maligns everyone who started reading after the 80s...

If only time had stood still? Think where we'd be....Kitty would've never grown up and become the girl we now know, Excalibur and GenX would never have happened, Pryde of The X-Men would've been the only x-cartoon, X-Factor would've never joined the main team, the X-men would've still been fractured and some presumed dead, the Blue/Gold combo would not have skyrocketed the X-Men to popularity in the 90s from which we still benefit from today. Morrison would never have re-introduced the franchise to people who thought it had nothing new to offer...Oh and Claremont would be like on his 100th mind control plot by now - he did love those.

You're right, we should've freeze framed at the end of the 80s and never moved from that spot.

Yeah, a lot hasn't been good over the years, but we've also had some incredible highs. Cheer up...comics are cyclical in nature...everything comes around again.

[FluffyCyclopsRLZ]

Still can't believe folks ever gave Bendis crap for pandering to the casual fans and thus generating sales. Regulars can't sustain a business forever. Sheesh.

[Park Slope Pixie]

If you don't acknowledge his departure as really bad news for the franchise then you truly don't understand what just happened.

It's pretty obvious to anyone who follows these things that Bendis' departure from the books is as a result of some behind the scenes ''something'' despite the comments in his interview. He's spent the last year claiming that Marvel would NEVER downplay a franchise that he was part of! That he had huge plans for the X-Men! And other various comments of the usual hyperbolic nature of creator interviews. Now all of a sudden, halfway through his stories, he's gone? The man who was so vehemently on the side of the mutants to the point of publicly crying about how ''sad'' it was the fans felt the way they do in regards to ''the complex''. Now it's all just dropped overnight?

I don't really need to go into detail into what i think happened, it speaks for itself really.

However, if people were worried about the state of the franchise pre-Bendis, well, i'd imagine it's about to get a lot worse. He was the only writer on the X-Books with any pull, who gets big artists, whose stories were given hype. The non-Bendis books struggle to hit page 2 in their various discussion/review threads. They are obviously not going to replace him with any of their current golden boys, they need them to write the 800 Inhuman ongoings that nobody demanded. Who are they going to replace him with? Fan favorite writer Sam Humphries?

Bendis stays 8 years on the Avengers. Bendis only manages to scrape out 2, maybe 3 from the X-Men? Come on. Mr. Long-Game when it comes to plotting?

Something happened. And it's not good. Marvel's premier writer just left the franchise, after promises to not bail and to check out the stories upon stories he's got lined up for the gang.

[Beezzi]

Bendis stays 8 years on the Avengers. Bendis only manages to scrape out 2, maybe 3 from the X-Men? Come on. Mr. Long-Game when it comes to plotting?

Something happened. And it's not good. Marvel's premier writer just left the franchise, after promises to not bail and to check out the stories upon stories he's got lined up for the gang.

Nothing happened, it was the plan all along.

Copied from an earlier post:

Last June Bendis, in an interview with CBR, said that Marks and him had the X-Men planned out for the next fourteen months. And guess what? Surprise, Surprise...that's about the same time of Secret of Wars/Battleworlds and when he should be leaving the X-family. He told us when he was leaving - we just never noticed, because it was in reply to wether X-fans were paranoid or not to think the X-Men where ending.

I think that's why things have been so slow, because they were stalling so that the rest of the universe could all wrap up things they still needed to do.

You have to give it to the man, he never lied to the fanbase about his future plans.

[cranger]

Nothing happened, it was the plan all along.

Copied from an earlier post:

Last June Bendis, in an interview with CBR, said that Marks and him had the X-Men planned out for the next fourteen months. And guess what? Surprise, Surprise...that's about the same time of Secret of Wars/Battleworlds and when he should be leaving the X-family. He told us when he was leaving - we just never noticed, because it was in reply to wether X-fans were paranoid or not to think the X-Men where ending.

I think that's why things have been so slow, because they were stalling so that the rest of the universe could all wrap up things they still needed to do.

You have to give it to the man, he never lied to the fanbase about his future plans.

The stories dried up, no doubt, but if 14 months was the plan, well he never made it that far. Which would suggest something happened that changed the plan.

[Beezzi]

The stories dried up, no doubt, but if 14 months was the plan, well he never made it that far. Which would suggest something happened that changed the plan.

Isn't he only leaving in the summer?

[Narasinha]

Nothing happened, it was the plan all along.

Copied from an earlier post:

Last June Bendis, in an interview with CBR, said that Marks and him had the X-Men planned out for the next fourteen months. And guess what? Surprise, Surprise...that's about the same time of Secret of Wars/Battleworlds and when he should be leaving the X-family. He told us when he was leaving - we just never noticed, because it was in reply to wether X-fans were paranoid or not to think the X-Men where ending.

I think that's why things have been so slow, because they were stalling so that the rest of the universe could all wrap up things they still needed to do.

You have to give it to the man, he never lied to the fanbase about his future plans.

He said that in an interview at the end of July 2014. Which would bring us to the end of September 2015 not May...

[Beezzi]

He said that in an interview at the end of July 2014. Which would bring us to the end of September 2015 not May...

Thanks for clearing that up but it's only a month.

It's summer, I never said May...same time as things like X-Men '92 which is in the summer. I'm pretty sure Bendis had a hand in helping the office put some stuff in place for after he leaves. He's a stickler for the long game.

Wait, was he right? Do we turn everything into a conspiracy?

[Narasinha]

It's summer, I never said May...

No but articles say that Bendis will leave the X-Men with issue #600 in May.
With a +/- 4 months error margin, you can fit nearly any theory you want: it's 2/3rd of a year after all...

[Beezzi]

No but articles say that Bendis will leave the X-Men with issue #600 in May.
With a +/- 4 months error margin, you can fit nearly any theory you want: it's 2/3rd of a year after all...

But it's so much fun to speculate...

It just doesn't seem like Marvel would "remove" him from the books that are selling. Maybe he wants to go write Spidey on a full time basis.

[Darth Kal-el]

I have no doubt Marvel would not cancel the X-Men franchise. But Marvel doesn't exist anymore, only a name to a division controlled by Disney to use comic IP's for movies. I have no doubt Disney would kill the X-Men franchise

[Rochedalaix]

I don't care Amazing X-Men is the only real X-Book anyways.

[sureshot]

I'm a little sad to see him go. Yet I don't think it's the end. Too many storylines either went nowhere. Such as Mystique taking over Madripoor. Or are taking too long to finish. It still feels like Cyclops is in the early stages of his so called "revolution". Even when taking into account his decompressed style of storytelling.

[Park Slope Pixie]

I don't care Amazing X-Men is the only real X-Book anyways.

dull as dishwater and inconsequential?